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Moon on the Snow

9: New Horizons

"We should start by making ourselves comfortable," Kaito told him as he shut and locked the door to their enormous bedroom with its panoramic view of the lake. We want to be relaxed physically and mentally. It's much easier to enter the right kind of mind space for working with dream magic that way."

Shinichi could only guess what that meant, but he trusted that the demon knew what he was talking about. So he did as Kaito directed and went about completing his usual pre-bedtime ablutions: brushing his teeth, washing his face, so on and so forth. Eventually, dressed in light, loose pajamas, Shinichi sat down on the edge of the bed, frowned, then stood up again and wandered around the room, listening to the sounds of Kaito taking his turn at the sink.

He wondered idly if all demons used toothbrushes and toothpaste for their dental hygiene needs or if it was a habit Kaito had picked up from spending so much time in the human world. He imagined there had to be spells for dental care. There seemed to be spells for everything and then some in the Makai.

Shinichi was still standing at the window when Kaito emerged from the bathroom wearing his own dark blue pajamas with feathers embroidered along the hems. Shinichi turned and tried not to goggle at the way the embroidered feathers actually drifted about on Kaito's shirt like they were being tossed about by a gentle but playful wind.

"You look nervous," Kaito observed, indigo eyes somber and searching as he stepped up beside Shinichi. He immediately slid one arm around Shinichi's waist and was gratified when the young detective leaned instinctively into his side and let his head rest on Kaito's shoulder.

He could sense Shinichi's trust in him, and feeling it, he found that he was nothing but calm.

His Shin-chan trusted him, and Kaito would do everything in his power to live up to that trust.

"I know you said I should learn some of the basics as soon as possible for safety and privacy's sake, but…I have no idea where to start," Shinichi admitted. "Or how you're supposed to teach me. Do I just go to sleep and hope that I stumble into your dream so you can start showing me things or what? And how are you going to be sure you will be dreaming about me anyway? If you're not, I won't be able to visit. Or maybe I'll dream that you're there and helping me but actually be dreaming, like, normally, and I'll end up learning things that aren't real."

Kaito raised a hand before Shinichi could say more, lips quirked into a fondly amused smile. "You're rambling. How much of the book did you manage to read?"

"Not a lot." Restless, Shinichi drew away from Kaito and wandered to the table where the book in question still lay. He ran a gentle hand over its elegant cover. "But I think I got the basic ideas. The book seems to think that anything more has to be learned through practice."

"It's the most effective method, certainly," Kaito agreed. "But, if you think it might help, I'll talk you through what we're going to do first before we go for the practical approach."

"Would you?" Shinichi asked, looking both hopeful and relieved.

Smiling softly, Kaito gestured the detective to one of the chairs at the little table by the window that was rapidly becoming their go-to spot for everything from earnest conversations to simple, lighthearted enjoyment of one another's company.

"Hot chocolate?" he asked.

Shinichi thought about it then shook his head. "Some warm water might be nice though."

"Right." Kaito snapped his fingers, and a pair of ceramic mugs appeared on the table, each filled two thirds of the way with warm, clear water. "There you go."

"I'm surprised you didn't go for the chocolate," Shinichi observed.

Kaito chuckled. "I decided I didn't really need the sugar right now. Besides, we don't need any distractions."

Shinichi made a noncommittal noise at that and turned to gaze out at the lake again. The moon's reflection in the water was so clear and crisp that it looked as though there were two actual moons outside, one above and one below, and no ground at all. Just sky.

It was a surreal sight. A fitting backdrop for the topic at hand, Shinichi mused.

Kaito cleared his throat, drawing Shinichi's attention back to him. "To answer your questions from earlier, the basics we will work on tonight will be focused on how you travel through the dream world—namely, how you travel between dreams and how you get out of a dream if you're in trouble."

"Does that mean waking up?" asked Shinichi.

"It does. It's the fastest and most effective way of breaking out of any bad situation you might encounter inside a dreamscape."

"Okay," the detective said slowly, nodding. "I understand that. But I still don't get how we're going to get started."

"That's actually the easy part," Kaito told him, lips curving into a wry grin. "I did tell you that I know some dream shaping."

"Oh right. You did, didn't you?"

"Yep. So I'm going to craft myself a dream with you in it. I was thinking I'd just go for the gazebo in the rose garden from my dream last night. You remember what it looked like, yes?"

"I do." Shinichi blushed. He remembered what the garden looked like all right. He also remembered the feel of Kaito's calloused hands holding his and the demon's large, feathered wing wrapped around him to shield him from the cold. Not to mention the feel of Kaito's lips on his own as the demon claimed his mouth in a lingering kiss—

Shinichi quickly cut that thought off before it could go any further and prayed that his face wasn't as red as it felt.

If he noticed, Kaito chose not to comment.

"I'll shape my dream like that," he said decisively. "As for you, you mentioned a coffee shop in a library, yes?"

"It was where my dream started."

"Right. And you saw the paths to other dreams there?"

"Er, maybe? It's what I ended up thinking they were anyway. They looked like magazines or books, but the covers were moving images—generally too blurred to actually make out. But when I touched one, I'd end up in another dream like the one where I found you…"

Kaito nodded. "Dream walkers need a center—a starting base, if you will. How it looks is up to you, and it can be changed, but there will usually be something that feels right to you. I'm guessing that coffee shop library would be your center. So I'm going to create a dream for you that puts you in a similar space. Once you're there, you should be able to feel your way to the real thing."

"But how?"

"You just will," Kaito assured him (not very reassuringly). "You'll feel it. Follow that feeling, and you'll get there before you know it."

"That…doesn't really explain much. Nothing at all, actually."

"Just trust me," Kaito said, eyes soft but serious. "The dream world is really all about intuition. Intuition, instinct, imagination and willpower. And you really can only get to know it through experience."

Shinichi sighed, resigned but not altogether surprised. "I suppose it'll have to do."

Kaito chuckled. "I know I put a lot of emphasis on the risks, but it's really not something to dread. There are a lot of cool things you can do with dream magic. And, as long as you don't go poking around other people's dreams uninvited, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Maybe some embarrassing situations and the occasional nightmare."

"I'm not actually sure that helps," Shinichi mused, imagining just how embarrassing things could get in a dream. He shuddered. Facing murderers sounded far less worrying.

"The key is to stay calm," Kaito advised. "As long as you can do that, there's only so bad it can get."

"If I was superstitious, I'd be worried that you'd just tempted fate."

Kaito laughed. "Ah well, no help for it now. So are you feeling ready to sleep?"

"I…suppose. My mind is buzzing but my body is tired," Shinichi admitted, covering a yawn. All that skiing had been quite a lot of exercise.

"Right then. We should move this to the bed."

The words made Shinichi blush pink, but he let Kaito scoop him up out of his chair. The demon lifted him with barely any effort at all, and it was kind of thrilling in ways Shinichi didn't want to think about.

The covers folded themselves back, and Kaito gently set his detective down on the edge of the bed then moved to sit beside him.

"So, like I said before, I'm going to start by crafting you a coffee shop dream. Do you want me to tweak the magic so that it also puts you to sleep?"

"I think that would be best," Shinichi decided. "I'm not sure I could sleep otherwise, with all this on my mind."

"Right. So shall we?"

Shinichi drew in a deep breath, counted to ten, then exhaled. Then he moved to lie down and closed his eyes. He opened them again almost right away.

"Do I need to do anything?"

Kaito smiled at him. "Nope. Just relax."

"All right. I'll try." Shinichi closed his eyes again. He had no idea what to expect, especially since he was so tense that he couldn't imagine actually falling asleep. But halfway through the thought, he had.

X

He was seated at a small table in his favorite on-campus coffee shop. Soft strains of classical music floated on the lightly coffee-scented air, mingling with an equally soft murmur of voices.

Shinichi lifted the cup he was holding to sip at its contents then frowned. There was something not quite right with the taste of his drink. Yes, it was his favorite blend from this shop, but it seemed…diluted somehow. Cloudy. It was more like the memory of coffee than the real thing, if it was possible for a drink to taste of such things.

It wasn't just the coffee either though.

Now that he was paying more attention, he realized that there was something odd about the shop around him too. He could hear people and see them scattered about the other tables, but, if asked, he couldn't have actually described any of those people in detail. They were just…there. Their conversations too were blurred and incomprehensible even when he bent his ears to listening.

Even the coffee shop felt softer somehow—blurred around the edges yet not. He could see the walls and windows and furniture just fine. He could even make out the petals of the sunflower in the painting under the clock. But the presence that each object and entity should have was just a little less than it should be.

Like none of this was quite real.

Or like he was dreaming.

With that thought, everything came rushing back, and he realized that he really was dreaming.

"Huh," he said aloud and was a little surprised by just how clear his own voice was.

He set his cup down and stood.

"So…what now?" he asked no one in particular. Not expecting an answer, he didn't bother waiting for one. Instead, he stood and looked around the shop again.

Kaito had said he would be able to sense what to do. Shinichi didn't really understand how that was supposed to work, but, now that he was here, he realized that he could indeed feel things about the world (dream?) around him.

He could sense that this shop was its own space and that whatever lay beyond its walls was both separate and less. But there was the potential for more.

He felt like he was standing in a room of shadows and looking out through an open doorway into a room of light and color. It wasn't a physical door though but the sense of it.

Fixing that sensation in his mind, he focused his gaze on the counter and walked forward, trying to imagine that he was walking through that door of potential.

He reached the counter, and the blurry, unremarkable barista had changed. Now it was Ran smiling at him.

"Your usual?" she asked, and it felt right and normal, and Shinichi was saying yes before he knew it.

When he turned away from the counter with his coffee in hand, he wasn't even surprised to see that the campus coffee shop had been completely transformed. It was still a coffee shop, but it was one ensconced in the middle of a library, and every patron sitting at a table had a pile of books before them.

"Your table's open," Ran told him, gesturing him towards a table for two situated right on the border between the coffee shop space and the library's domain.

"Thank you," he said and carried his drink to the table. Once again, he felt no surprise when he saw that there were several books and magazines already waiting for him on that table.

Was every piece a representation of a dream being dreamt by someone near to him in the waking world?

How would he ever know? Well, he supposed he could probably find out, but that wasn't really what was important right now.

He was supposed to be meeting Kaito.

Kaito had said he would make sure that Shinichi was in his dream, which would place his dream within easy reach of Shinichi's wanderings.

Considering how Shinichi was coming to think of the reading materials in this place, he thought he should be able to tell which was Kaito's dream if he thought about it without having to dive right in first.

Sitting, he spread the books and magazines on his table out before him carefully, touching them as little as possible and only by the very corners of their pages lest he accidentally got drawn in.

Two of the items were books with nothing on their heavy covers. He knew instinctively the instant he touched them that they were closed to him.

Next, he looked over the several magazines, all with covers of undulating color, light and shadow. These, he knew intuitively, he could enter, but he wasn't sure about anything more than that.

Still, he was considering trying one with soft blues and purples and silvers in the tone because the colors evoked similar feelings to that garden Kaito had shown in the other night, but he stopped with his hand just over the cover.

Instead, he found himself drawn to a small but much more compact volume with a single, blue rose stenciled on black leather.

It…felt like Kaito, he thought. It had his presence, his sense of mystery, his confidence and his warmth.

Before he knew what he was doing, Shinichi had picked up the black book with its blue rose and opened it, and the library around him once again fell away.

"It looks like you're here," a warm voice murmured into his ear, breaths hot and a little ticklish against his cheek.

A shudder of pleasure ran up Shinichi's spine, and it took him a moment to recollect his wits and begin processing this latest dreamscape and, incidentally, his position in it on Kaito's lap.

Shinichi leapt up with a squeak—or rather he tried to. The arms around his waist kept him rather firmly in place.

"Calm down," Kaito said, laughing. "We weren't doing anything indecent. Promise."

"You could've warned me," Shinichi grumbled, but he settled down (being held like this by Kaito was rather nice, and it wasn't like anyone was going to see them). "So…what now?"

"Tell me what you see," said Kaito.

"What I see?" Shinichi echoed, puzzled. "Well, we're in a gazebo, which seems to be in the middle of a rose garden. We're by a lake. It's obviously nigh time, but I have no problem seeing. That moon is far too big and far too bright to be natural. Am I supposed to be looking for something in particular?"

"And what do you feel?" the demon asked instead of answering.

Shinichi twitched but figured that Kaito had to have a point. "There's a light breeze. It's cool but not cold."

"And?" Kaito pressed. "What else?"

Shinichi frowned. What else was there?

Well, there was Kaito's very solid, very warm presence holding onto him. And no, he wasn't going to say that. It was obvious anyway, and he didn't think it was what Kaito was getting at.

Although, speaking of Kaito's presence…

Shinichi closed his eyes, focusing on Kaito then on their surroundings. Without his vision getting in the way, it became much more obvious. Kaito was the only thing around him with any real presence. In the real world, even with his eyes closed, he would have expected his other senses to give him a kind of feel for the space they were in—from the faint scent of water and flowers to the weight of a roof over their heads and the openness of the great outdoors beyond.

Here, when he wasn't looking at it or in direct contact with it, the only thing with an actual, solid presence was Kaito. There was also a kind of simplicity to what he could pick up. He could detect a trace of those aforementioned scents of the garden, but they were far less complex and layered than they would have been in the waking world. The same went for the sounds.

It all reminded him of that cup of coffee he had sipped back in the coffee shop that Kaito had fabricated for him. The coffee that had tasted like the memory of coffee given form and substance…

"I'm not sure how to describe it," he said finally, opening his eyes again and finding himself momentarily struck again by the unearthly beauty of the night before him with its too luminous moon. "But I think it's the presence. Those people in the coffee shop didn't have any, but you… You're solid. I had to look at those people to know they were there. But I know you're behind me even with my eyes closed. It's like you have weight and most everything else doesn't. And that aura of realness is spread through this place. It's in this gazebo, which is why it looks and feels solid and how I know you created it. It feels like you, just less, er…there than you personally…?"

Kaito listened as Shinichi babbled, trying to get his sudden rush of thoughts out of his head so that he might start making sense of them. When the detective was done, Kaito smiled.

"And there you have it." He said. "Creating a dream is like crafting a little world, a simple one—a room, a moment, a wish, a second chance… It's all possible. It's all there. But it's also more than that because the world you create doesn't have to match the one that exists in the waking world.

"In a dream, you can be anything. Watch this."

Kaito stood. He let Shinichi slide off his lap, but he kept an arm looped around Shinichi's waist as he tugged the curious detective to the gazebo rails.

"Stay here and watch," he told Shinichi before he hopped up onto the railing, balanced perfectly on his booted feet with his great, black wings arched high over his head. He cut quite the striking and intimidating figure, Shinichi thought with some amusement. But then Kaito had leapt again, and suddenly his entire form rippled.

Shinichi never could see what happened in that ripple. But one moment it was Kaito leaping off the rails, the next there was a black wolf with great, black feather wings landing lightly on silent paws right on the surface of the lake.

Delicate rings of silver light rippled out from where his paws touched that tranquil surface.

"In a dream," Kaito said with the wolf's mouth. "Rules are flexible. As are shapes. It is a world shaped entirely by our thoughts and feelings."

With an abruptness that made Shinichi jump, the winged wolf vanished, and Kaito was standing beside him again. The magician grinned at the detective's startled expression.

"In your own dream, you can do pretty much anything just by willing it. Without conscious direction though, a lot of natural laws like gravity will operate normally because that's how we subconsciously understand reality to work. Basically, the more unlikely you know something to be, the harder it is to make it happen even in a dream. Of course, that's under normal conditions. Strong emotions have more power in dream worlds than logic. Fear in particular can and will warp things way out of control, but we'll worry about how to deal with that some other time."

Shinichi nodded, absorbing the information.

"For now, I want to show you just what we can do here."

As Kaito spoke, the gazebo and the rose garden beyond melted away like smoke—almost exactly like smoke, in fact. The colors faded. Edges softened and fluffed out. Only the ground directly beneath their feet remained. In moments, both the magician and his detective were standing on a solitary spire of rock in the middle of a sea of fluffy clouds.

The sky overhead too had shifted, becoming a wash of pale, sunrise gold and pink with the faintest brushes of blue.

"Huh. The temperature feels the same," Shinichi observed.

"Temperature is one of those things that doesn't vary much in dreams," Kaito explained. "It's not static, but the range of change is pretty limited. When you do feel extreme temperatures, it's usually spill over from the real world."

"That's interesting."

Kaito chuckled. "I'm glad you think so, but that's not what I brought you here to show you. Look over your shoulder."

Shinichi did so and gasped.

Two great, white feathered wings were now attached to his back (what happened to the back of his shirt?). Even half folded, they arched high over his head. Were they actually his?

In answer to his thoughts, the wings shifted. He unfolded one experimentally then folded it again.

"They move," he marveled.

"Indeed they do."

"I assume you made them?"

"That's right."

"So it's not just your own form that you can change," Shinichi realized. "You can alter mine too."

"Yes. And you need to remember that." Kaito's expression grew serious. "Since this is my dream, I can manipulate your appearance just as easily as I can mine. But your actions are your own. You can also influence your own appearance in someone else's dream through a combination of those actions and your own will. The fact that you can move those wings is one example."

Kaito stepped to the edge of their little plateau of stone then cast a grin over his shoulder, eyes bright. "So tell me, have you ever dreamed of flying?"

That said, he jumped, dark wings unfolding.

"Come on!" he called back over his shoulder.

Shinichi hesitated for only a moment. He had no idea how to actually fly, but that was the point, wasn't it? Here in this world, it wasn't about skill. It was about imagination and desire. And haven't most people dreamt at least once of flying?

Shinichi took two running steps and leapt. White wings opened, and suddenly he wasn't falling anymore.

He let out a laugh of pure delight.

"This is amazing!"

TBC

A.N: I've had a horrendously stressful week. Hope the next one is better for everyone.